Arthritis is a disease due to the inflammation of connective tissue in joints, resulting in pain, swelling, stiffness and loss of function of the joints. The most common types of arthritis are osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Biologics based injections are the leading drugs for RA. For example, brands like Humira, Enbrel and Remicade accounted for 2015 sales exceeding $30 billion. Although effective, these drugs are expensive and are known to have certain side effects, which requires continuous medical attention of a physician. In general, these drugs block a protein called tumor necrosis factor (TNF), that's involved in inflammation. Therefore these drugs are often called anti-TNF or TNF inhibitors. Similarly, Rumalaya forte of the Himalaya Drug Company, India is an oral dose medication that is reported to act as a TNF inhibitor. It is reported to be effective for both OA and RA, though it is not expected to be as effective as the biologic drugs.
OA is a chronic condition occurring more frequently as people get older and can break down joint's protective cartilage causing damage and pain. OA pain develops slowly and may require daily management for pain. While there is no known cure for OA, there are treatments that can help one relieve the pain in the joints. Physicians recommend the use of topical non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for OA joint pain, at a lowest possible dose of medication for the shortest time to achieve pain relief. Voltaren Gel is one such available NSAID, used for the relief of joint pain of OA in the knee, ankles, feet, elbows, wrists and hands. It is applied on clean, dry skin that does not have any cuts, infections, or rashes. However, it is recommended that one should not use the gel along with any oral NSAIDs.
Doctors have long treated auto-immune diseases such as arthritis as a case of confused immune system. Here immune cells appear to decide that healthy tissue looks foreign and wage an attack. If the immune system is not actually confused but it is reacting to normal molecules that wound up in an abnormal place, the mechanism of action would be different. Padlock Therapeutics, USA thinks that the right way could be to block those errant molecules rather than blocking the immune system itself. This contrarian view of autoimmunity is based on evidence around a family of enzymes called protein arginine deiminases (PADs). Under normal conditions PADs live inside cells. But if they escape, immune cells start action, and a series of events begin to take place including what's known as protein citrullination, which is linked to RA. Padlock is designing small molecules to block this PAD activity.
Thus, techniques for managing OA and RA are based on man-made either biological large molecules or synthetic small molecules, however, there are medications also derived from plant extracts. These extracts are a mixture of several smaller molecules of varying chemistries. For example, Topricin is such a topical homeopathic cream to treat foot and ankle pain for neuropathy. Here the plant extract is a vasodilator, to treat the pain in the limbs relating to restricted blood flow to nerve endings and reduction in motor and sensory nerve conduction velocities.
Thus, a range of synthetic NSAIDs based formulations is available, which produce their own side effects based on the amount of active ingredient and duration of therapy. On the contrary, herbal formulations are also available which although are effective, but do not exhibit an effect that is higher or equivalent to the NSAIDs based topical formulations.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,871,647 discloses a composition for treating fibromyalgia pain consisting essentially of Aesculus hippocastanum extract, Arnica montana extract, L-arginine, Echinacea augustfolia extract, Rhus toxicondendron extract, Ruta graveoleus extract, graphites, Crotalus horridus extract, Heloderma horridum extract, Lachesis extract, Naja extract, isopropyl myristate, and capsaicin for homeopathic treatment.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,838,045 discloses an anti-inflammatory formulation of Barbarea verna seed containing phenethylisothiocyanate, which can be used for treatment of many inflammation-related conditions, including but not limited to rheumatoid and osteoarthritis, acute and chronic pains, lupus, irritable bowel disease, cancer and metabolic syndrome.
Mitoshi et. al. in International Journal of Molecular Medicine, 33, 1643-1651, 2014, published a study on the biological activity of twenty essential oils (EOs). The publication discloses Lemon Grass (Cymbopogon citratus oil or CC oil) to elicit strong anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic effects. The activity was determined by measuring the TNF-alpha in murine macrophage. Further, the principal component of CC oil was reported to be Citral.
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and Northeast Institute of Science and Technology, India provides a topical ointment based on a blend of EOs of 2% Eucalyptus globulus oil, 2% Cinnamomum tamala oil, 2% Zanthoxylum armatum oil and 1% Hedychium spicatum oil for the treatment of OA and RA. The said gel based ointment was studied on both arthritic mice model and human clinical RA patients for effect on levels of cytokines.
D. Giri et al, in Journal of Medicinal Plants Research, Vol. 4(25), pp. 2773-2777, 2010 discloses the anti-inflammatory activity of Hedychium spicatum. 
WO 2015000064 discloses a composition to treat pain and/or inflammation comprising beta-caryophyllene or a functionally equivalent derivative, analogue or pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, and eugenol or a functionally equivalent derivative, analogue or pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof. It discloses beta-caryophyllen derived from Zanthoxylum armatum. 
However, there remains a need to develop new and alternative anti-inflammatory formulations having enhanced synergistic anti-inflammatory effect. It is also desirable that such formulations have minimal or no side effects thus being safe to administer. More specifically, there is a need to develop a topical formulation which provides an enhanced anti-inflammatory effect with a high benefit to low risk ratio.